Follow the story:

Verna Williams, 36

Verna Williams, a 36-year-old black woman, was found dead by students in the stairwell at 68th Street School in the 600 block of West 68th Street in Vermont-Slauson on May 26, 1986.

She had been strangled.

Police at the time thought Williams was one of many victims of a serial killer dubbed the Southside Slayer. Williams was believed to be the 17th woman whose murder was blamed on the man in the serial killings that began in 1983. She was black and had a record of arrests for prostitution.

In 2008, convicted serial killer Michael Hughes was tied to Williams' case and three homicides through DNA. Hughes had been convicted of first-degree murder for the killings of four additional women a decade earlier.